Q & A
Private Courses Offered at Imagination
We offer the courses “Introduction to Music” for ages 3-4, “Introduction to Music with Piano” to ages 3-5 and “Introduction to Music with Violin” to ages 4-5.
Please visit our private music lesson page here for further information.
Our private music lesson cost is competitive to other private music lesson programs in the Montreal area, BUT conveniently given to our Imagination daycare students at Imagination. Please contact us here for specific information about our pricing.
The lessons occur when our students are present at school.
In general, parents sign up for a session of 10 lessons at a time. There is no specific registration period, you can start your child when they are ready.
A session includes 10 private 30-minute lessons that occur weekly.
Furthermore, a session includes a blog update once per session on our student’s password-protected blog page. The blog shows our student’s short term and long term progress to their parents and family. It also becomes a treasure over time to see each of our students grow up!
We also sometimes use the blog as a practice tool when your child is ready for that step in their music education.
Unfortunately no. We are exclusive to Imagination Daycare since 2015.
Absolutely! Join our waiting list here and we will be in contact with you shortly.
Private Lesson Readiness Assessment & Test Lesson Information
Most students are ready for our “Introduction to Music” course by the time they are 3 years old. Sometimes we begin students at age 2, but just about to turn 3.
Children differ in their time of readiness to begin our private music lessons and so we recommend to schedule a test lesson.
We would be happy to give you our professional opinion! Contact us here to set up a test lesson for your child.
In a test lesson…
Your child will have their first music lesson with their music teacher and we will assess their abilities and answer the following questions…
1. Does your child seem interested and comfortable to be instructed in a one-on-one lesson?
2. Does your child follow along and want to try all musical activities and instruments presented to them?
3. Can your child stay focused and participate for the entire 30 minute lesson?
4. Does your child want to come back another time after a successful first lesson? Even better did your child have so much fun in their test lesson that they didn’t want to leave the music classroom with their new amazing music teacher? 😉
A test lesson, if successful and you choose to continue your child, will be the first lesson within our 10 lesson normal session.
If you decide not to continue the instruction after the test lesson, or we decide that your child isn’t ready for the instruction, the lesson is completely free.
We will place your child on our waiting list, and we can try a test lesson again in 3 to 6 months time.
Attendance Policies and More
For our daycare students…
…whether you’re away on vacation or your child is sick, please give us 24 hours notice if your child cannot attend their lesson. We will then simply continue your child’s session when they are present back at daycare with a possibility of a makeup lesson if your teacher’s schedule allows it.
If you are not able to give us 24 hours notice, we will mark your child as absent in respect for your teacher’s time.
For our students that continue with us beyond Imagination..
…we have a no cancellation policy as it is very difficult to reschedule lessons within this group of students. But we are very understanding and do our best if there are any opportunities depending on the specific situation and your teacher’s availability to offer makeup lessons.
Contact Shawn, the owner of the music program directly.
Please note that Projet Allegro is a separate entity from Imagination Daycare even though we do work closely together. For any communication about your child and their daily attendance information, you will have to contact both Projet Allegro AND Imagination Daycare.
For our daycare students, if your child is away for an extended period of time, we won’t always be able to save their lesson spot unfortunately, but we do try.
It depends on a few factors including the length of time you will be away, our program’s yearly schedule and your specific teacher’s preferences. So please reach out to us about this and your situation, and we will do our best to help.
We can pause the lessons, and jump back in when you return as soon as possible.
For our continuing after Imagination students, your child’s lesson attendance is expected from September – June. We base our yearly calendar around your child’s typical school calendar, so usually our time off matches with yours for your convenience.
Obtaining an Instrument & Practice at Home
If you have one, it’s a plus! But usually we do not assign practice homework until your child is aged 4 and half. At this time, we believe it is more developmentally appropriate.
If you do not have an instrument at home, it is not necessary and your child will still get a lot out of our private lessons!
If you would like to obtain a musical instrument at home, read on to the next questions below.
If your child is a student that continues with us beyond Imagination, YES you will need an instrument for your child at home.
Yes! Finding a keyboard or piano is an exciting task, but it can be overwhelming to parents as well. There are so many brands, price points and places to shop.
A general recommendation if you are going the electric keyboard route is, your instrument must simply have a grand piano sound with key velocity sensitivity, meaning your child will be able to play soft to loud for opportunities to play expressively.
Weighted keys and the full 88 keys are another plus, as this will give your child the feeling of playing as if their instrument were a true grand piano.
You can avoid too many other features, especially lighted keys or synthetic sounds, for simplicity is best.
If you are interested to purchase your child an upright acoustic piano, be aware, there are many of these types of pianos on places like Facebook that are for free. Sometimes this is because it takes a lot of effort and cost to move an instrument like this. But other times, it means that the piano’s cost to repair is greater than the worth of the piano itself. Pianos are like plants, you have to maintain and take care of them regularly for them to be playable from now into the future.
Other factors to consider, you will need a stool for your child’s feet to rest, and a piano bench. In some cases, you will also need to purchase a piano stand.
If you would like more specific recommendations about where to shop, please let us know and we would be happy to help you!
No! Our beginner violin students actually start on a box violin. This is essentially a pretend violin made out of a macroni and cheese box. 
We do this first because violins are so fragile, and the basic violin positions are very intricate. Your child will first learn how to care for their instrument, and learn how to handle and position their instrument into a violin playing position without fear of breaking and dropping their precious instrument.
When your child is ready for a real violin, your teacher will let you know, and it is recommended that you rent one, not purchase. We will recommend a place for you to go when that time comes.
Renting a violin is best at this time, as your child will go through many sized violins before playing on a full sized violin. It’s a very good idea to rent a high quality instrument, as this insures your child will get the best sound and experience as they learn. And then, as your child grows, you can go to exchange your violin to a larger size with ease.
Another thing to consider is that your child will need an adjustable music stand.
Yes! Your teacher will be in contact with you to help you practice with your child at home.
When it’s the right time, we will also ask you to provide your child with a three-ringed binder and a ruled notebook so that we can provide you with music and lesson notes.
When appropriate we can also send you practice videos or meet with you in person if our schedules align.
The blog is another great source for you and we can update this more often when needed!
When your child is of daycare age, consistency and quality in practice is more important than time spent.
Your parental support is also essential at this age.
We recommend sitting with your child and practicing with them at the same time everyday. Practicing together should be fun quality time full of games and happiness!
Like stated above, we don’t recommend worrying about the length in practice at this time as much, but when your child is 4-5 years of age in general a practice session could range from 5-10 minutes.
With our students that continue with us after the daycare, we recommend anywhere from 10 minutes per day to 30 minutes per day of practice.
As our students mature, they will not need their parental support as much, unless of course this is something that you want to do.
Anything you can get your hands on!
But here’s a list of our classroom favourites in no particular order..
Boomwackers
Glokenspiel
Xylophone
Remi drums
Ukulele
Lolipop drums
Rainstick
The spoons
You can also make instruments at home for fun! In our classroom, we make drums out of coffee cans!
After Imagination
Yes! Our program has a special studio outside of our Imagination Daycare students.
You will see our students out and about in the community. They partcipcate in their school talent shows and volunteer in retirement homes. Some students have studied with us for 10 years!
Currently we teach 30 dedicated piano and violin students ages 5-16 during our after school times and on the weekends.
The best way is to place your child on our waiting list and then we will be in touch! Click here to enter our waiting list.
We love all of our daycare students very much and wish we could continue everyone after they graduate. But please note that we accept only a few students within this studio per school year to have a variety of ages and playing levels for our teachers to teach.
Our studios outside the daycare are also just very small, as a private teacher can only teach an additional 10-15 students per week outside of our daycare students.
When we accept students to continue with us, we look for students that are really passionate about their music lessons, where parental involvement at home to practice is very high, and where the connection they have with their teacher is such that we see many years of continued studies together.
Since we cannot accept everyone that is interested, please note that we highly prioritize Imagination graduates.